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Judge Mr Justice Wilkie refused his request before chastising the killer for his "cowardice" - adding: "You are no patriot."

Thomas Mair refused to speak during a police interview (Image: West Yorkshire Police)

Detectives urged him to explain his political allegiances and the MP's murder (Image: West Yorkshire Police)

He said: "You are no patriot. By your actions you have betrayed the quintessence of our country, its adherence to parliamentary democracy.

"You have not even had the courage to admit and acknowledge what you did.

"You have, instead, forced the prosecution to prove this case in detail, withholding your agreement to anything which would have lessened that task, thereby adding, I have no doubt deliberately, to the anguish of Jo Cox's family and the witnesses to these awful events forced, as they have been, to relive them.

Mair continued his silence as he refused to give evidence (Image: PA)

Mair made a belated attempt to speak before being sent down (Image: PA)

"There is no doubt that this murder was done for the purpose of advancing a political, racial and ideological cause namely that of violent white supremacism and exclusive nationalism most associated with Nazism and its modern forms.

Jo's husband Brendan branded Mair a "terrorist" for the politically-motivated attack and said the 53-year-old had showed his true colours by not taking responsibility for his actions.

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"We feel nothing but pity for him; that his life was so devoid of love that his only way of finding meaning was to attack a defenceless woman who represented the best of our country in an act of supreme cowardice.

Jo Cox was murdered outside a constituency surgery (Image: PA)

She was shot and stabbed outside Birstall Library in West Yorkshire (Image: Ben Lack)

"Cowardice that has continued throughout this trial.

"The killing of Jo was, in my view, a political act, an act of terrorism - but in the history of such acts it was perhaps the most incompetent and self-defeating.

"An act driven by hatred which instead has created an outpouring of love.

Brendan and Jo's family stood united outside the Old Bailey (Image: Daily Mirror / Ian Vogler)

"I think for me there is a contrast there between the bravery of Jo - what she stood for, what she fought for, and in her final moments asking her friends who were trying to help her to get away so that they wouldn't get hurt - with the cowardice of a man who attacks a 5ft tall woman with a gun and a knife, and then is too scared to take the dock and to account for his actions in court.

"So for me it's that contrast between the bravery and some of the best of us, with the sheer cowardice and hatred that I don't think represents anything in our country."